Consideration was given to a
report presented by the Strategic Director of Children and Young
People's Services concerning the Children Act 2004 which requires
local authorities to appoint a Director of Children's Services and
Lead Member for Children's Services for the purposes of discharging
the education and the children's social services functions of the
local authority. Statutory guidance on the roles and
responsibilities of the Director and the Lead Member was first
issued by HM Government in 2005 and was revised in 2009. The
Department for Education plans to replace the current version with
revised guidance, within the current consultation process,
which is much shorter and less prescriptive. Consideration was
given to the contents of the Government’s consultation
document.

The first draft of the
Council’s suggested response to the Government Department for
Education was included with the submitted report. Responses were
required to be submitted by Friday 6th January 2012.

The Select Commission’s
discussion included the following salient issues:-

:
Government guidance issued in 2009

:
Munro Report on safeguarding of children

:
some Directors have responsibility for safeguarding children and
adults

:
lead member responsibilities for children’s services and
safeguarding adults

:
procedures for exercising lead member and director
responsibilities

:
appointment process for the Director of Children’s
Services

:
responsibilities of the Leader and the Chief Executive of the local
authority

:
local authority assurance checks on the exercise of the statutory
responsibilities.

Resolved:- (1) That the report
be received and its contents noted.

(2) That the contents of the
Council’s response to the consultation document, as now
submitted, be approved in so far as this Select Commission is
concerned.

Consideration was given to the
Department of Education consultation documents, presented by Kay
Denton-Tarn, Healthy Schools Consultant, concerning the review of
Personal, Social, Health and Economics (PSHE) Education.

The Government’s Schools
White Paper, ‘The Importance of Teaching’, stated that
there would be a review to determine ways of supporting schools to
improve the quality of teaching of personal, social, health and
economic (PSHE) education, including giving teachers the
flexibility to use their judgement about how best to deliver PSHE
education. This request for representations and responses was
seeking local authorities’ views on the core body of
knowledge that pupils need to learn through PSHE education teaching
and ways to improve the quality of teaching.

The first draft of the
Council’s suggested response to the Government Department for
Education was included with the submitted report. Responses were
required to be submitted by Wednesday 30th November
2011.

Discussion took place on the
following salient issues:-

:
assessing and tracking the
progress of pupils in studying PSHE in schools

(both primary and
secondary)

:
non-statutory frameworks and programmes of study for
PSHE education

:
learning life skills
– to accept that people will have differing attitudes
and

values

:
the subject ‘Citizenship’ is separate
from PSHE

:
learning about economic well-being; hardship and
poverty within PSHE

:
careers guidance

:
the teaching and learning of sex and relationship
(health) education

(including the
involvement of parents)

:the pressure upon schools’ timetables to
include the PSHE curriculum,

alongside the
many other subjects

:
good practice in Rotherham about challenging
prejudice

:
resources required for the teaching and learning of
PSHE in schools

The Select Commission noted the
strength of views being expressed and welcomed the opportunity to
be part of the consultation process.

Resolved:- (1) That the contents of the consultation
documents be noted.

(2) That the contents of the
Council’s suggested response be
approved and it is the view of the Improving Lives Select
Commission that personal, social, health and economic (PSHE)
education should become a statutory part of the national
curriculum.

(c) the Department for Education document entitled
‘Study Programmes for 16-19 year olds’ which included
details of the review of vocational education undertaken by
Professor Alison Wolf and published in March, 2011.

The Select Commission’s
discussion included the following salient issues:-

: the funding and cost of education and
training for young people, post-16

: funding
for education and training for young people from disadvantaged
backgrounds (known as the ‘disadvantage
uplift’)

: a South Yorkshire-wide approach to
learning provision for 16-19 year olds in the County (of the 10,000
post-16 learners in Rotherham, some 1,400 are resident outside the
Borough area)

: Rotherham
is a ‘net importer’ of post-16 students from the other
South Yorkshire districts

:
increasing the number of post-16 students engaged in a programme of
study

: bursaries for the costs of learning
programmes

: proposed changes to funding and to young
people’s access to learning

: support for children and young people
with learning difficulties

: measuring
a pupil’s progress with learning, not only by means of
qualifications gained

: the focus on literacy and numeracy as a
corner stone to life chances and the availability of the
qualifications in functional skills at Levels 1, 2 and 3

: funding
for internships and work placements for post-16 learners, as the
funding of work placements for pre-16 learners has been
reduced

: work
placements within the Council for young people – nb: (i) there are
places provided by individual schools and (ii) specific provision
is made for looked after children seeking a work
placement

: the availability of apprenticeships for
young people

: the
likely profile of the cohort of young people leaving schools,
colleges and other places of learning in the future.

The Select Commission expressed
concerns about the Government’s apparently disjointed
approach to consultation on this issue, because of the unintended
consequences of the different funding methodologies, ie: funding provided per each individual learner,
or by specific course provision.

It was noted that the providers
of education and training for 16-19 year olds would also be
responding to the consultation documents.

Resolved:- (1) That the contents of the various submitted
documents be noted.

(2) That the comments of the
Select Commission be included in the Council’s response to
the submitted consultation documents.

23.

Date of Next Meeting

Minutes:

Members noted that the meeting
of the Improving Lives Select Commission, scheduled to be held on
21st December 2011 has been postponed and that the next
meeting is therefore to be held on Wednesday 25th
January 2012.